Red Poppy Art House

Sayat Nvaq Ensemble: Troubadour & Village Music of Eastern Armenia
2018-09-08 19:30 - 22:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Red Poppy Art House, 2698 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Sayat Nvaq Ensemble is a San Francisco Bay Area group that delves into the rich traditions of Eastern Armenian music. The group draws its inspiration equally from the two main pillars of Armenian secular music: the classical troubadour poet traditions of the Ashougs and Gousans—such as Sayat Nova, Ashot, Djivani, and Sheram—as well as the popular regional village music found throughout the countryside. Sayat Nvaq Ensemble invites audiences, both old and new, to share its deep appreciation of this evocative musical tradition.

FEATURING:
Shea A.J. Comfort – duduk, shvi, ploul
Leslie Bonnett – vocals, violin
Haig Kassabian – dhol
Khatchadour Khatchadourian – vocals
Briget Boyle – harmonium, vocals

Learn more: Facebook

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $20-25 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Maracujá: A Journey Around Latin America Through Music
2018-09-09 19:30 - 22:00
Vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Caitlin Belem and guitarist Terrence Rosnagle take you on a trip through Latin America, playing sumptuous samba, bossa nova, cumbia, son, and much more.

FEATURING:
Caitlin Belem – vocals, saxophone, guitar, fiddle, hand percussion
Terrence Rosnagle – guitar

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Caitlin Belem grew up in a house full of music in Northern Wyoming, falling in love with the fiddle at a young age, as well as learning to sing and play saxophone and guitar. She has explored many genres, from Brazilian bossa nova, samba, and Cuban son, to American jazz, blues, and swing. Aside from Maracujá, Belem sings and plays with Modern Bygones and various local and traveling musicians. She has performed everywhere from living rooms, to 1,200-seat concert halls, to television programs in Barcelona and Brazil. Belem also teaches music through school programs, private lessons, workshops, and summer camps.
Terrence Rosnagle grew up in the Los Angeles area and was initially inspired by Delta blues to play the guitar. As an adult, he became fascinated by not only the sound, but the complex synthesis of African, European, and Middle Eastern musical traditions that make up Latin American and Brazilian music. Rosnagle later moved to Spain to study and play flamenco guitar; then to Istanbul to study ud and Turkish music; and eventually to South America to soak up folkloric and Brazilian guitar styles. He has performed, toured, played on radio and television, and has given workshops and classes in the United States, Spain, and Turkey.

Learn more: Website | Facebook
Photo by: Kristina Moravec

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Jessica Fichot: French Chanson & Shanghai Jazz
2018-09-14 19:30 - 22:00
Accompanied by her accordion, toy piano, and fiery band, Los Angeles-based chanteuse and songwriter Jessica Fichot draws from her multi-ethnic French, Chinese, and American heritage to create an intoxicating multilingual amalgamation of French chanson, 1940s Shanghai jazz, swing, and international folk.

FEATURING:
Jessica Fichot – vocals, accordion, toy piano
Ippei Ichimaru – upright bass
Mike Bjella – clarinet, saxophone

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
With three acclaimed albums under her belt—Le Chemin, Le Secret, and Dear Shanghai—Jessica Fichot has brought her music to audiences around the world, regularly performing in China, Mexico, Canada, and across the U.S and western Europe. Backed by a group of talented musicians and singing in French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and English, Fichot can switch with ease from a lively French chanson to a moving Mexican classic or a jazzy Shanghai gem. The group performs styles that are varied but are always united by Fichot’s gorgeous, expressive singing voice. An active composer, she has written hundreds of children’s songs for various educational programs, and she also composes interactive music for indie video games. Her original songs have been featured in movies, TV shows, and commercials. (Photo by: Nicolas Kaviani)
Learn more: Facebook

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Triism / Chord Four: Balkan Folk & Jazz Meets California Avant-Garde
2018-09-15 19:30 - 22:00
Triism is a jazz trio from Northern California that plays creative arrangements of original compositions, Balkan folk music, pop songs, and jazz standards. Featuring saxophonist Levi Saelua, bassist Alex Reiff, and drummer Jim Frink, their collaborative arrangements often develop from conversations about politics, pop culture, science, and comedy.
Chord Four, a chord-less Los Angeles-based ensemble, then takes the stage to perform a wide repertoire heavily influenced by jazz, as well as the traditional music of Ghana, Indonesia, India, and the Balkans. This, along with their variable instrumentation, makes for a dependably intriguing collection of sounds and timbres.

FEATURING:
Triism
Levi Saelua – woodwinds
Alex Reiff – bass
Jim Frink – drums
Chord Four
Andrew Conrad – tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, melodica
Brandon Sherman – trumpet, flugelhorn, melodica
Emilio Terranova – double bass
Colin Woodford – drums, cymbals, melodica

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Triism
Saxophonist/composer Levi Saelua has worked as a professional musician since the age of 16. He has had the opportunity to perform with artists in a wide array of genres, from jazz to classical and hip-hop to bluegrass. He studied jazz composition and saxophone at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, with composers Bill Dobbins and Dave Rivello, as well as saxophonists Chien-Kwan Lin, Jose Encarnacion, and Charles Pillow. Saelua has performed and/or studied with artists such as Maria Schneider, Bob Brookmeyer, Jeff Beal, Fred Sturm, Bob Mintzer, Ryan Truesdell, and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. He has written, produced, and played on albums for groups in California, Chicago, and New York, and has traveled the world performing for audiences in the U.S., Australia, Asia, and Europe.
Alex Reiff studied jazz performance at Sacramento State University and has performed with world-class musicians such as Donny McCaslin, Steve Turre, Dave Pietro, Nancy King, and Wycliffe Gordon. He is featured on numerous Sac State Vocal Jazz and Big Band recordings, as well as Perseverance by the Alex Jenkins Sound Immersion. Some of his musical influences include Charlie Haden, Jimmy Garrison, Wilbur Ware, Tom Waits, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and Wayne Shorter.
Jim Frink started with music at an early age and has played drums professionally since high school. He studied music at UC Santa Cruz, has performed internationally, and has played and recorded in a wide variety of styles, including jazz, rock, funk, country, pop, Brazilian, and Slavic folk music. Along with maintaining a private drum teaching studio, he has given clinics at the high school and university level as a guest lecturer.

Chord Four
Chord Four is an award-winning avant-garde ensemble of improvisers and composers creating original music which balances intricate rhythms and harmonies. In 2017, Chord Four won first place in the first international CONAD Jazz Contest and has performed at the Umbria Jazz Festival, as well as many jazz venues throughout the West Coast.
Learn more: Facebook | YouTube | Bandcamp

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $20-25 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Hazel Reading Series: Stories by Women
2018-09-17 20:00 - 21:30
Hazel Reading Series is a vibrant literary community founded in 2013. Each month, the all-women lineup of writers is carefully selected by the readers of the previous month. Through this curation-by-evolution process, they have created a sense of lineage and have come into contact with some of the best writers in the Bay Area—some at the beginning of their careers, some who have already published several books—and hosted evenings that are as unpredictable as they are unforgettable.
Hosted by Sara Marinelli, Hazel Reading Series comes to the Red Poppy for an incredible evening of stories by women.

FEATURING:
Kirstin Chen
Emily Dezurik-Badran
Sara Brody
Heather Bourbeau
Emily Pinkerton
Andrea Garcia-Vargas

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 8:00pm event
Admission: $5-10 suggested donation. No one turned away for lack of funds.
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Levoná Ensemble: Music & Stories from Around the World
2018-09-20 19:30 - 22:00
The Levoná Ensemble combines flamenco, Arab, Jewish, and other musical traditions and weaves them together with stories, both ancient and new. Five master musicians form a rich tapestry that is at once a taste of the orient and a new creation all on its own—the kind of energy that only comes when distant cultures overlap and celebrate their differences.

FEATURING:
Faisal Zedan – percussion, vocals
Josh Mellinger – percussion
Asaf Ophir – woodwinds, vocals
David McLean – flamenco guitar
Patrick Kelly – bass

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Levoná began as the band for the highly acclaimed Bay Area musical Love Sick, winning the Theatre Bay Area Award for “Best Ensemble” along with the cast in 2017. Love Sick went on to receive the prestigious Glickman Award for “Best New Play” in 2018, and audiences and critics alike praised its vibrant music as the heart of the play’s energy and wide appeal. Levoná have since continued to perform as an independent group, keeping that same energy alive in both dance and concert halls.
Learn more: Facebook

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Alex Hand Band: Eastern European Folk Jazz
2018-09-21 19:30 - 22:00
The Alex Hand Band is riding the wave of its first full-length album, 2018’s Traders of the Lost Arts, with performances featuring songs from this record as well as an upcoming one. The music is a mix of Romanian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian traditional folk dance tunes with original compositions inspired by years of playing these styles and studying music in Eastern Europe.

FEATURING:
Alex Hand – guitar
Gabe Case – bass
Kevin Gerzevitz – accordion, keys
Isaac Schwartz – drums

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Alex Hand has performed at the Red Poppy with Istanbul Connection, Jessica Fichot, Mahala, as well as his own band. The Alex Hand Band started in 2014 as a Django Reinhardt-style, acoustic jazz/swing quartet and evolved into an electric guitar-led Balkan folk jazz ensemble. After studying folk music in Eastern Europe in 2015, Hand has gathered a group of Bay Area jazz, classical, and Balkan musicians and mobilized a project bringing progressive rock and jazz sensibilities to traditional music, crafted in the chaos of communist regimes, gypsy villages, and community dance.
Learn more: Facebook | Bandcamp | ReverbNation

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Flamenkeando: Flamenco Meets Gypsy Jazz
2018-09-22 19:00 - 21:30
Caminos Flamencos, an award-winning flamenco troupe, collaborates with members of gypsy jazz group Barrio Manouche to present an eclectic evening of flamenco, jazz manouche, and Latin vibes. Seven artists improvise and explore between their musical worlds to create a blend of sounds rooted in flamenco dance and music, yet open in a free-style form much like a chamber jazz ensemble.

FEATURING:
Jason “El Rubio” McGuire – acoustic guitar
Felix de Lola – vocals
Javi Jimenez – guitar
Luis Jimenez – percussion
Yaelisa – flamenco dance
Fanny Ara – flamenco dance
Marina Elana – flamenco dance

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Yaelisa, renowned flamenco choreographer and artistic director of dance company Caminos Flamencos, has performed with many of Spain’s finest artists, including Alejandro Granados, Antonio “El Pipa,” Manuel and Antonio Malena, Domingo Ortega, Enrique “El Extremeno,” Yeye de Cádiz, Mateo Soleá, El Junco, Juan Ogalla, Geronimo, Felipe Maya, and many more. Her choreography has been commissioned by several modern dance companies such as John Malashock & Company, Rose Polsky, and Collage Dance Theatre. In 1995, she was one of 11 international choreographers in Spain—and the only American choreographer chosen among them—invited to present her choreography at the prestigious Certámen de Coreografía in Madrid. Internationally recognized as a master teacher, Yaelisa has developed a teaching style that emphasizes cultural understanding and knowledge of the cante. In 1993, she was the recipient of an Emmy Award for Choreography for the PBS program Desde Cádiz a Sevilla, as well as an NEA Choreography Fellowship. In 2005, Yaelisa and Caminos Flamencos received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award in the category of “Best Company Performance,” and in 2006, she was given the Profiles in Excellence Hispanic Leadership Award by ABC-7. Yaelisa served as choreographer and consultant on a production of Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding for the Shotgun Players theater company in 2007. In 2014, she choreographed San Francisco Opera’s production of La Traviata, and in 2015, her production of Nuevos Tendencias was nominated for two Isadora Duncan Dance Awards. In recent years, Yaelisa and her company have worked in film, music video, and television, and as guest artists with Pacific Symphony and California Symphony.  She is also the co-founder and artistic director of the New World Flamenco Festival held at Irvine Barclay Theater in Irvine, California.
Jason “El Rubio” McGuire began playing guitar at the age of nine. He received formal training in Dallas, Texas, from the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where he studied jazz and classical guitar, as well as theory and composition. While in school, he received DownBeat Magazine’s prestigious Dee Bee Award in the category of “Instrumental Jazz Soloist.” He began performing as a flamenco guitarist in New York, playing alongside the legendary Pedro Cortes Jr. In 1995, McGuire recorded with famed jazz manouche guitarist Carlos Heredia on his album, Gypsy Flamenco, and released a recording of his own composition, Distancias, in 2005. He has accompanied and collaborated with many great artists, including Savion Glover, Yaelisa, Alejandro Granados, Andres Peña, Antonio El Pipa, Enrique El Extremeño, Carmela Greco, José Cortés, Manuel and Antonio Malena, among others. McGuire has been awarded a California Arts Council Music Fellowship and has been nominated three times for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award. He is also an accomplished recording engineer and producer, sharing credits with David Schiffman (Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash) on the album What’s in Your Mind (Powerslave Records) from the band Zeromind. McGuire currently serves as a music director for both Caminos Flamencos and The New World Flamenco Festival. In 2015, he formed his own trio, Terceto Kali.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 6:30pm doors / 7:00pm show
Admission: $20-25 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Rumberos de Radio Habana: Monthly Community Rumba
2018-09-23 14:00 - 17:00, 2018-10-28 14:00 - 17:00
Rumba music originated in the Afro-Cuban neighborhoods of Havana and Matanzas as the soundtrack to community, partnered dancing and get-togethers as a means of cultural expression. Its global diaspora means rumba rhythms have found their way into other genres of music such as country, rock, and blues, and continue to impact the genres of today. Rumberos de Radio Habana bring their own contribution to the Red Poppy on the fourth Sunday of each month for a free afternoon of beat-making, hip-shaking, and good company.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 2:00pm event
Admission: Free; donations accepted for musicians ($5-10)
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Georgy Gusev & Jacopo Giacopuzzi: Musical Review of Russia Through the Revolution
2018-09-28 19:30 - 22:00
Cellist Georgy Gusev and pianist Jacopo Giacopuzzi present an unstoppable force in the world of classical music. True models of complete 21st century musicians, both Gusev and Giacopuzzi draw on an exceptional cultural heritage.

FEATURING:
Georgy Gusev – cello
Jacopo Giacopuzzi – piano

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
A graduate of the famed Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, Georgy Gusev moved to Italy to study with Giovanni Sollima and earn his Master of Cello at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in December 2013. Gusev performs at major festivals and venues worldwide with renowned musicians such as Natalia Gutman, Giovanni Sollima, Enrico Dindo, Rocco Filippini, Monika Leskovar, Boris Andrianov, Eliso Virsaladze, and many others. Among his recent projects, his series of compositions for cello solo, titled The Traveler’s Diary (originally Breviario per Nomadi), has been used as background music for various shows by the Italian national broadcasting company RAI, as well as a few films. Cello Drive, his first solo album as a cellist and composer, was released by the UK label North2North. Gusev is also a founder of the Creative Laboratory GOSH Projects, an association of young musicians of Russia, as well as Masters of Music, an international music festival held each year in Moscow since 2013.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Jacopo Giacopuzzi has performed recitals at major festivals and venues throughout the United States and Europe. Born in Italy to a family of pianists, he studied in Weimar at the Liszt Hochschule and earned his first master’s degree cum laude in piano performance under the guidance of Virginio Pavarana. Giacopuzzi is a winner of 14 international competitions including the International Piano Competition San Donà di Piave, Premio Crescendo in Florence, International Liszt Competition in Los Angeles, and the Beverly Hills National Auditions. He has taught at the Conservatory of Verona E.F. Dall Abaco (2012–2014), worked as a collaborative pianist at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels (2010), and has been invited to serve on competition juries and participate in presentations and concerts throughout California. His most recent musical engagements take him every summer to iPalpiti Festival in Los Angeles, Pianofest in the Hamptons, and the Maui Chamber Music Festival in Hawaii.
Learn more: Georgy Gusev Facebook | Jacopo Giacopuzzi Facebook

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $20-25 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Will Brahm + Homenaje: An Homage to Music Around the World
2018-09-29 19:30 - 22:00
Led by guitarist Will Brahm, Homenaje—meaning “tribute” in Spanish—pays homage to the support and unity of various types of music and cultures from all around the world. With roots in jazz, Cuban, African, Venezuelan, Israeli, and classical music, the group strives to bring different people together through their original songs.

FEATURING:
Will Brahm – guitar
Chris Wabich – drums/percussion
Ross Shodek – bass
Dina Zarif – vocals

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Born in Portland, Oregon, Will Brahm moved to Los Angeles in 2007 and attended the Cole Conservatory of Music at Cal State Long Beach. He graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in jazz guitar performance as a five-time KJazz scholar. Having always loved music from different cultures around the world, he formed his global music group Homenaje. Their debut album, La Mariposa y el Mentiroso, was released in 2017 and features all original compositions of Brahm’s. He tours extensively within the United States and has performed his music throughout Canada, Asia, and Europe. Brahm also plays with the critically acclaimed New West Guitar Group and has worked with artists including The Gordon Goodwin Phat Band, Kim Richmond, Jimmy Branly, Otmaro Ruiz, Gretchen Parlato, Sara Gazarek, and Jane Monheit.
Dina Zarif is a performer and vocalist who combines Western classical singing with Middle Eastern styles inspired by her Persian roots. Some of her credits include SF International Arts Festival, Palace of Fine Art, San Jose Stage, Golden Thread Productions at Brava Theater, and the staged reading of Layla & Majnun at BAMPFA as part of the symposium with Mark Morris Dance Group and the Silk Road Ensemble. Zarif tours both nationally and internationally as a costume designer and actress in the shadow production Feathers of Fire. She received her MA in landscape architecture and currently is the director of programming at Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco.
Learn more: Facebook | YouTube

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $20-25 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Salsa Dance Party Benefit
2018-09-30 15:00 - 18:00
2018 marks the 15th anniversary of the Red Poppy Art House, a landmark accomplishment we’d love to celebrate with you all! Beginning September 30th through the end of the year, we’ll be hosting a series of events and online campaigns in honor of our sweet 15th.
To kick off our birthday season, we’re starting with a Salsa Dance Party Benefit in support of the Red Poppy. Spend Sunday dancing away the afternoon with us! Both first-time dancers and experienced salseros are welcome.
Admission is a suggested donation of $5-15 (sliding scale), but please give at the level you feel comfortable. All funds raised will directly benefit the space and its programs.
Have a favorite salsa song? Email info@redpoppyarthouse.org or message us on Facebook with your top tunes! We’re putting together a custom playlist of all your favorites for the dance party.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 3:00pm event
Admission: $5-15 sliding scale (suggested donation)
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Brian Andres Trio: Latin Jazz
2018-10-05 19:30 - 22:00
Brian Andres returns to the Red Poppy to present original compositions and arrangements of classic jazz and Latin standards.

FEATURING:
Brian Andres – drumset
Christian Tumalan – piano
David Pinto – bass

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Drummer Brian Andres leads the Latin jazz group the Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel. The nucleus of that ensemble is the trio, featuring Grammy Award-winning musicians Christian Tumalan on piano and David Pinto on bass. As they have with the larger ensemble, the trio exerts a firm grip on the music’s cutting edge, playing with confidence, poise, and rhythmic imagination. Tumalan also co-leads the Pacific Mambo Orchestra, and Pinto was the music director for Peruvian songstress Susana Baca prior to relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Photo by: Harvey Castro Photography

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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October 6th MAPP @ Red Poppy Art House
2018-10-06 19:30 - 22:00
Launched in 2003, the Mission Arts & Performance Project (MAPP) is a homegrown bi-monthly, multidisciplinary, intercultural happening that takes place in the Mission District of San Francisco. On the first Saturday of every even month of the year, the MAPP transforms ordinary spaces, such as private garages, gardens, living rooms, studios, street corners, and small businesses into pop-up performance and exhibition sites for a day/night of intimate-scale artistic and cultural exchange among a kaleidoscope of individuals and communities.

RPAH PROGRAM:

Time
Performance/Event
Description
Featuring

7:30pm – 8:00pm
Trio Czinka Panna
Music from Eastern Europe
Ineke Koksma (violin), Olle ten Cate (accordion), Balder ten Cate (cimbalom)

8:10pm – 8:50pm
Rules of the Game
One-act play with music
Isabel Aks (actor), Pao Changklueng (actor), Sophia Graham (actor), Puck Hartsough (actor), Naomi Louie (actor), Yasamin Marashi (actor), Jason Tran (actor), Ruth Cavano (bass), Aiyana Greene (vocals), Gina Jacobsen (flute), Faith Lam (violin)

9:00pm – 9:25pm
Isik Berfin Band
Kurdish Sufi / Zazaki music
Isik Berfin (vocals, daf, percussion), Ozden Oztoprak (vocals, baglama), Sali Shopov (davul, percussion)

9:30pm – 10:00pm
Eastern Fusion Trio
Middle Eastern jazz blend
Nima Hafezieh (piano), Artem Zinin (bass), Aydin Kiasat (kamancheh)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Based in the Netherlands, Czinka Panna is a violin-accordion duo with a large repertoire of mostly Eastern European music, including Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, and Romani melodies, but also Klezmer, Italian, French, and romantic film music. For this performance, they will be joined by their son on cimbalom. The ensemble is named after the legendary 18th century female Hungarian-Romani violinist Czinka Panna, who lived near Budapest and would entertain the local nobility with her family band.
Five teens who are just sitting around begin a game of Truth or Dare. As it becomes clear they’re in a detainment camp for migrant children, the stakes of the game grow far higher than anyone suspected they would. Rules of the Game is a one-act play with music performed by students from the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts who are doing this play to raise awareness about the detention of migrant children and, where possible, to raise funds for non-governmental organizations working to help these children. We are trying to use art to promote ethical actions in response to a bad situation.
Ozden Oztoprak and Isik Berfin, a mother-daughter duo from Turkey’s Zaza-Alevi community, have a distinct Zaza repertoire of songs stemming from a Sufi spiritual tradition. Rumen “Sali” Shopov is a master Turkish-Romani drummer, singer, and string player from Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria. A charismatic and patient teacher, Shopov has taught at the Eastern European Folklife Center’s Balkan Music and Dance Workshops, Berkeley’s JazzSchool, UC Berkeley, University of Oregon, and more.
Eastern Fusion Trio beautifully blends Middle Eastern music with jazz through a distinct combination of instruments. Founded in May 2018, the members of the trio have all studied various genres of music for decades, and at the same time, they have been performing professionally for over 10 years. Their ongoing project, Eastern Fusion Society, unites musicians from around the world to play and enjoy music unifying multiple styles and influences.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:30pm event
Admission: Free
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Eliyahu Sills & Amir Etemadzadeh: Traditional Sacred Music from the Near East
2018-10-07 19:30 - 22:00
Eliyahu Sills and Amir Etemadzadeh are musicians of sensitivity, passion, skill, and nuance with years of experience performing. Presented with reverence, soul, and creativity, they will play music from Iran, Turkey, Israel, and the Arabic-speaking world, celebrating the common musical and spiritual heritage of the region’s cultures, while honoring the great diversity found within them.

FEATURING:
Eliyahu Sills – Turkish & Persian ney, Arabic nai, oud, vocals
Amir A Etemadzadeh – tombak, daf, tar, vocals

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Eliyahu Sills is a highly acclaimed musician of many instruments with deep knowledge in multiple musical traditions, from spiritual music of the Middle East and India to American soul and jazz. He is a leader and collaborator of many projects, most notably the Qadim Ensemble—which brings together diverse cultures of the Middle East and whose album reached #7 on Billboard’s World Music charts—and BOLO—which blends infectious rhythms of dance music, jazz improvisation, global influences, and the soulfulness of devotional kirtan. Sills also performs as a solo artist and with his duo, playing Hindustani ragas, Sufi music, and Jewish songs. Known for his authenticity and soulful musicianship, he has been performing for over 20 years on various instruments, including the bansuri, Turkish and Arabic ney, upright bass, and electric bass.
Amir A Etemadzadeh is a Middle Eastern musician, instructor, performer, and composer. Born and raised in Iran, he received an extensive education in music from various masters. After arriving in the U.S. in 2002, he expanded his portfolio to include percussion instruments from around the world. Etemadzadeh has collaborated in numerous performances and recordings with several known musicians and groups, such as Ethel String Quartet, Hafez Modirzadeh, Ramin Zoufonoun, Miriam Pretz, Qadim Ensemble, Silk Road Festival, and Cal Poly Middle Eastern Music Orchestra to name a few. Passionate about promoting peace through music and music education, Etemadzadeh manages his own organization, Mint Tea Music Production, and his music academy, Amir School of Music.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $20-25 door / $20 online. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Mini Residency: WaterSaw, Sonsherée Giles & Megan Lowe: The Sounds Inside
2018-10-11 - 2018-10-13
After an artistic residency and well-received performance in March 2018, the Red Poppy Art House invites artists Megan Lowe, Sonsherée Giles, and WaterSaw to come back and perform The Sounds Inside, a site-specific dance and sound score exploring what is going on within a space, our bodies, and our minds. The strong relationship between Lowe and Giles is supported by full trust in each other, both physically and artistically, which allows for new discoveries through proficient movement generation, risk-taking, tackling unusual physical situations, and coming up with compelling solutions. Creating layers of sound through loopers, WaterSaw uses their instruments in both conventional and experiential ways, giving way to an array of textures and sounds ranging from sparse, to rhythmic, to ethereal, to driving.

FEATURING:
Megan Lowe – dancer
Sonsherée Giles – dancer
WaterSaw
Nicole Laby – vocals, percussion
Michael Tornatore – drums
Mark Fassett – upright bass
Mia Pixley – cello

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Megan Lowe is a performance artist, dancer, singer, teacher, and administrator. She has performed with Flyaway Productions, Lizz Roman & Dancers, Scott Wells & Dancers, Nancy Karp + Dancers, Epiphany Productions, Dance Brigade, and more. Lowe continues to create her own dances, as well as collaborative works with Sonsherée Giles. She teaches for Bandaloop, Flyaway, Joe Goode Performance Group, for contact improvisation gatherings, and for her alma mater Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) at UC Berkeley.
Sonsherée Giles is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, costume designer, and founder of the collaborative container This Sweet Nothing. She enjoys making dances based on the observation of animals, landscapes, art history, and daily life experiences. Giles has an MFA in performance/choreography from Mills College, and from 2005-2015, she was a performing/teaching artist with AXIS Dance Company. She has taught contemporary dance in public school systems, institutions, dance festivals, and universities. Giles has received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Ensemble Performance, as well as a Homer Avila Award for Excellence in the field of integrated dance.
WaterSaw is a group of musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area. They are inspired to write music for modern dance choreography, film scores, or in conjunction with other art forms. Creating layers of sound through loopers, their music utilizes a contemporary minimalism approach. The rumination of textures, rhythms, or root chords creates a simple foundation from which to build melodic and rhythmic transformations. WaterSaw’s work is evocative and strives to blend audience and artist, so that the audience becomes an extension of the music. The group has received an Izzie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music/Sound/Text.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: (Oct 11) 7:30pm doors / 8:00pm show + artist reception
(Oct 12) 7:30pm doors / 8:00pm show
(Oct 13) 6:00pm doors / 6:30pm show
(Oct 13) 8:00pm doors / 8:30pm show + artist reception
Admission: $25 online / $30 door
*Very limited tickets available at the door; buy online to guarantee admission.
*Please be advised there will be NO LATE SEATING. We encourage guests to arrive at least 15 minutes before showtime.
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Hernán Reinaudo & Scott O'Day: The Guitar in Argentine Tango
2018-10-14 19:30 - 22:00
Argentine tango guitarist and composer Hernán Reinaudo is joined by local tango guitarist Scott O’Day for a tour of the best music that tango has to offer. Coming together for the first time in North America, this duet represents a collaboration that reaches across continents and musical backgrounds, for the love of a musical style that is still undergoing a worldwide resurgence. The guitar, an instrument with a storied past in the tango genre, will also be common ground.

FEATURING:
Hernán Reinaudo – guitar
Scott O’Day – guitar

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Hernán Reinaudo is one of the most outstanding guitarists of the new generation of tango musicians that has emerged over the last years in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has accompanied renowned Argentine singers including Susana Rinaldi, Ariel Ardit, Alberto Podestá, and Soledad Villamil among many others. Reinaudo was awarded the Clarín and nominated twice for the award Carlos Gardel for best tango group. He has performed with 34 Puñaladas and Hugo Rivas Quartet, and has also toured throughout America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. With more than 40 album productions under his belt, Reinaudo and his quintet recently released a new album, Neocriollo, which won first prize in the category Best New Work given by the National Foundation of Arts of Argentina. Since 2014, he has toured the U.S. in concerts, as well as conducted workshops and classes. (Photo by: Paola Evelina)
Scott O’Day is a local Bay Area favorite for tango music, appearing regularly in concert and at the milonga. He attended La Escuela de Música Popular de Avellaneda, a tango music school in Buenos Aires, and has performed with several tango groups all around the U.S., Canada, and Argentina to popular acclaim. Currently, O’Day is also the instructor for the Community Music Center Tango Ensemble in San Francisco.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Darren Johnston and The Pipes ft. Allison Lovejoy: New Chamber-Folk with a Jazz Reduction
2018-10-18 19:30 - 22:00
Bay Area trumpeter/composer Darren Johnston’s newest project for showcasing his songwriting features the distinct instrumentation of two bass clarinets—played by powerhouse composers/improvisers/bandleaders Steven Lugerner and Cory Wright—along with Johnston on trumpet and vocals, as The Pipes. From short and sweet, quirky, groove-based songs to more expansive open improvisations, they’ve created a new recipe for experimental chamber-folk with a jazz reduction, telling stories of love and loss, war and peace, and how fleeting everyday moments can contain a universe of poetry and the sublime. Also on the bill is local treasure pianist Allison Lovejoy, who will be performing original works from Bay Area composers, some classics, and more.

FEATURING:
Darren Johnston – trumpet, vocals
Steven Lugerner – bass clarinet
Cory Wright – clarinet, bass clarinet
Allison Lovejoy – piano

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Since settling in San Francisco in 1997, Canada-born trumpeter, improviser, composer, and songwriter Darren Johnston has collaborated and recorded with an extremely diverse cross-section of artists. His interests rotate around composing instrumental music, writing songs, and performing all styles of jazz, chamber music, experimental and purely improvised music, as well as traditional music of the Balkans, Greece, and Macedonia. He has performed and/or recorded with luminaries such as ROVA Sax Quartet, Marcus Shelby, Fred Frith, Meklit, Hamid Drake, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Allison Miller, Brass Menazeri Balkan Brass Band, Matt Wilson, Mark Dresser, Marshall Allen, and many others.
Multi-instrumentalist/composer Steven Lugerner maintains musical ties between multiple music scenes including his home of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. As a bandleader, Lugerner leads both SLUGish Ensemble, an amoeba-like group dedicated to original compositions and arrangements, as well as JACKNIFE, a hard-hitting post-bop quintet dedicated to the music of late alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. The Bay Area native has collaborated with a heavyweight roster of jazz masters including Fred Hersch, Jason Moran, Myra Melford, Albert “Tootie” Heath, Matt Wilson, John Hollenbeck, Miguel Zenon, Ralph Alessi, and many others.
Reeds player Cory Wright has been involved in both the jazz and creative music worlds for the past 20 years, including time spent in New York, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. He is interested in blurring the distinction between composed and improvised material, mixing the harmonious with the atonal, and groove with the arrhythmic. He has played with Anthony Braxton, Vinny Golia, Eddie Gale, Adam Rudolph, and Yusef Lateef among others, and is a member of Bay Area groups Bristle, Wiener Kids, and the Nathan Clevenger Group. Wright leads the Green Mitchell and the Cory Wright Outfit.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Nora Stanley / Owen Clapp: Original Music Borrowing from Old & New
2018-10-19 19:30 - 22:00
With a focus on original compositions, the group brings together the influences of four rising Bay Area musicians with strong backgrounds in the jazz tradition. The music explores the blurring of lines between composition and improvisation through shared experience and close listening.

FEATURING:
Nora Stanley – saxophone
Luis Salcedo – guitar
Owen Clapp – bass
Matt Buckner – drums

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Nora Stanley is a local saxophonist, composer, and recent graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with Gary Bartz. She has had the honor of sharing the stage with such greats as Ambrose Akinmusire, Dayna Stephens, Chucho Valdes, and Eddie Henderson. Stanley has performed locally at Yoshi’s, SFJAZZ, and Monterey Jazz Festival, as well as abroad in Cuba, Brazil, and Spain.
Guitarist and composer Luis Salcedo maintains an active schedule throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. From the straight ahead and swinging to the cutting edge and experimental, Salcedo brings an authenticity and musicality that is not to be missed.
Owen Clapp is a San Francisco Bay Area-based bass player, composer, and songwriter. His versatility on upright bass and electric bass has given him the opportunity to work with a variety of artists across a range of genres, including hip-hop artists Anderson.Paak, Dumbfoundead, and George Watsky, as well as Grammy Award-winning jazz musicians Kenny Burrell, John Clayton, and Ruslan Sirota. Clapp’s recording credits include sessions for Sony Pictures, Lyft, and various Los Angeles-based commercial licensing agencies.
Matthew Buckner is a drummer, composer, and producer hailing from Minneapolis, MN. Known for his musicianship and versatility, Buckner has worked with a wide range of artists and has performed at clubs and festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada. He is currently an active member of the SF Bay Area jazz scene and can be heard with bands such as Aaron Kruziki’s Education Reform.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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14th Annual Lit Crawl SF: Hazel Reading Series / The Escapery
2018-10-20 18:30 - 21:00
Hazel Reading Series features an all-star lineup of readers. After the intermission, The Escapery readers explore life’s peaks and craters, the ways that the moonshine reaches all of us, the glint and glare of love and death, and the waning gleam of the moon as we move through our lives.

One of the most anticipated literary nights of the year, San Francisco’s Lit Crawl is a massive, one-night literary pub crawl throughout the city’s Mission District. Lit Crawl SF brings together 500+ authors and close to 10,000 fans for the world’s largest free pop-up literary event. Started in 2004, Lit Crawl cultivates a unique, resonant brand: smart and silly, worldly and wacky events presented in venues usual (bars, cafes, galleries, and bookstores) and unusual (police stations, tattoo parlors, barbershops, and laundromats).

FEATURING:
Hazel Reading Series
Ciera-Jevae Gordon
Meilan Carter-Gilkey
Natasha Dennerstein
Sara Marinelli
Thea Matthews
Yang Huang
The Escapery
Nancy Au
Carson Beker
Haldane C. King
Kathryn Kruse
Ploi Pirapokin

ABOUT HAZEL READING SERIES:
Hazel Reading Series is a San Francisco-based monthly reading series and an ever-evolving community. Each month, emerging and established women writers share their work and go on to choose next month’s readers. Hazel is a place for experimentation, for support and community, for writers and literature lovers of all kinds to bump into new work and new ideas. Hazel Reading Series is also invested in creating a space that represents and celebrates the diverse ethnicity, sexuality, ability, age, and form of the Bay Area’s artists.

ABOUT THE ESCAPERY:
The Escapery is your Writing and Other Arts Unschool. We use themed classes, field trips, day-long intensives, craft intensives, five/ten week adventures, and more to create spaces for artists to play, learn, find community, create, and share. Playful, community-oriented, queer, re-centering women/NB, queer/trans artists, and artists of color. No famous white men, no tear-down workshops, zero-tolerance for micro or macro aggressions. We are always all/no levels, always genre-queer, anti-competition and pro-tearing down the walls. SF/Oakland originated, extending our kraken tentacles all over the map and in your virtual spaces.

ABOUT THE READERS:
Nancy Au is co-founder of The Escapery. Her writing appears in Tahoma Literary Review, Lunch Ticket, The Pinch, Foglifter, and elsewhere. Au’s flash fiction is included in the forthcoming Best Small Fictions 2018 anthology, and her full-length collection, Spider Love Song & Other Stories, is forthcoming from Acre Books in March 2019.
Carson Beker is co-founder of The Escapery. They are a writer, playwright, and storyteller. His stories have appeared in Foglifter (Pushcart Nomination 2016), Gigantic Sequins, and Radar Literary Series. They were a 2016 Lambda Fellow and Tin House Workshop scholar.
Haldane C. King is the founder of Terra Incognita Literary Reading Series and an instructor and board member of The Escapery. He earned his MFA degree in writing and consciousness from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2012. He is an editor of WTAW Press, a data analyst, and helps bring literature to the people with the Why There Are Words Literary organization.
Kathryn Kruse received her MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and holds a BA in English with a certificate in creative writing from University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was an instructor with The Escapery from 2016-2017. She founded and curated the NeonLit reading series. Her work is published, among other places, in Indiana Review, The Manchester Review, The Adirondack Review, I Hope You’re Feeling Better Collaborative Exhibition.
Ploi Pirapokin has work featured in Tor.com, Apogee Journal, the Bellingham Review, Fiction International, Cleaver Magazine, and more. She has received grants and fellowships from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Creative Capacity Fund, the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Ragdale Foundation, Kundiman, and others. Pirapokin holds an MFA in fiction from San Francisco State University.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 6:00pm doors / 6:30pm event
Admission: Free
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Duo Violão Plus 1: Brazilian Jazz, Samba & Choro
2018-10-25 19:30 - 22:00
On tour from Rio de Janeiro, Duo Violão Brasil presents a special evening of choro featuring compositions by Baden Powell, Pixinguinha, Radames Gnattali, as well as originals by Rogerio Souza. They will be accompanied by special guest percussionist Ami Molinelli.

FEATURING:
Rogerio Souza – 7-string guitar
Edinho Gerber – 7-string guitar
Ami Molinelli – percussion

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Duo Violão Brasil is the result of guitarists Rogério Souza and Edinho Gerber’s reverence for Brazilian guitar—the violão—and their desire to explore and expand the musical possibilities of putting two “violões” together. With a repertoire from composers like Pixinguinha, Baden Powell, and Tom Jobim, the duo navigates effortlessly through the many styles of 20th century Brazilian popular music while showcasing original works and inventive arrangements.
Learn more: Ami Molinelli

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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RagaMenco: A Musical Journey from India to Spain
2018-10-26 19:30 - 22:00
Javier and Luis Jiménez, founders of the acoustic global music septet Barrio Manouche, present new project RagaMenco along with Mallar Bhattacharya, Nilan Chaudhuri, and Satish Pillai. The group has been working together on the great adventure of blending Indian classical music with flamenco grooves and melodies. They will perform original arrangements influenced by ragas with an improvisational jazz approach.

FEATURING:
Devi SenGupta – vocals
Mallar Bhattacharya – sarode
Javier Jiménez – guitar
Satish Pillai – piano
Nilan Chaudhuri – tabla
Luis Jiménez – cajón

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
A collaboration between Indian and Spanish musicians from the Bay Area, RagaMenco explores an exciting new territory that combines the traditions of Indian ragas with Spanish flamenco and contemporary jazz grooves. The ancient traditional sounds of the Old World find a new voice in California.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Teslim: The 7 Decades Project
2018-10-27 19:30 - 22:00
Teslim (tes-LEEM) consists of three composers—violinist Kaila Flexer, multi-instrumental string wizard Gari Hegedus, and Elana Brutman on Cretan lyra with sympathetic strings—who share a common love of modal music from Turkey and Greece. Joined by percussionist Joshua Mellinger, the group presents the 7 Decades Project, which features original compositions by Flexer in honor of her parents, Abe and Bobbie.
Flexer’s parents met when they were just 11 years old. Now 83, the two have been together for over seven decades and continue to be madly in love. Over the years, Flexer has written many compositions for birthdays and anniversaries, and more recently pieces about Bobbie’s diagnosis (two years ago) and treatment of Grey Zone Lymphoma. Bobbie has been doing very well for the past year on an experimental drug. Flexer has been honing these pieces and collaboratively arranging them with the ensemble, and they are thrilled to be sharing these compositions, as well as works by Brutman and Hegedus.

FEATURING:
Kaila Flexer – violin, tarhui
Gari Hegedus – oud, mandocello, saz, tarhu
Elana Brutman – Cretan lyra with sympathetic strings
Josh Mellinger – percussion

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Kaila Flexer is a violinist, composer, music educator, teacher, producer, mother, and plant lover. She has recorded three albums with her groups Third Ear, Next Village, and Teslim. Between 1989 and 2013, Flexer founded and produced Jewish music events Klezmer Mania! and Pomegranates & Figs: A Feast of Jewish Music, as well as smaller music events. Over the years, she has performed with various groups including Club Foot Orchestra and Kitka, as well as with artists such as Shira Kammen, Ross Daly, Kelly Thoma, Hamed Nikpay, and Hollis Taylor. Flexer can be found teaching and composing in her Oakland studio.
Gari Hegedus plays violin, viola, and a variety of lutes from Greece and Turkey, including laouto, oud, and saz. Along with playing in Teslim, he also performs with global music group Stellamara, as well as Bay Area groups Janam and The Helladelics. Hegedus has studied with oud master Naseer Shamma and has studied, recorded, and performed with Ross Daly and Kelly Thoma. He has toured with the Mevlevi Dervish Order of America and continues to participate in Turkish ceremonial and devotional gatherings around the country. In addition to being a composer and performer, Hegedus is a talented luthier, repairing stringed instruments of every variety; coaxing sound from sazes, violins, and rebabs; restoring lutes and lyras; making bows; and finding ingenious ways to allow the true voice of an instrument to come forth.
Elana Brutman has dedicated the last several years of her life to the intensive study of the lyra with sympathetic strings, an instrument which is based on the Cretan lyra and incorporates elements of the Byzantine lyra and Indian sarangi. She has spent the last five summers traveling to Greece to study at Labyrinth, Ross Daly’s center for modal music instruction and practice, where she studied with Kelly Thoma and many other master musicians from Greece, Turkey, and Iran.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $20-25 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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3 + 3: A Collaboration Between 3 Poets & 3 Musicians
2018-10-28 19:30 - 22:00
Three musician-poet pairs each perform a set—one new poem inspired by an original song, one new song inspired by an original poem, and one piece of pure collaboration.

FEATURING:
Heather Bourbeau – poet
Raman Osman – musician
Maw Shein Win – poet
Evan Karp – musician
Nick Johnson – poet
Arula – musician

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Heather Bourbeau’s writing has been published in Alaska Quarterly Review, Eleven Eleven, Francis Ford Coppola Winery’s Chalkboard, The Stockholm Review of Literature, and the anthology Nothing Short Of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was a contributing writer for Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond with Don Cheadle and John Prendergast.
Raman Osman is a Kurdish composer and master tembûr (saz) musician from Al-Hasaka, Syria. In his early age, he was exposed to a variety of music and cultural sources like Kurdish, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, Assyrian, and more. Osman has performed at a variety of venues, including the Damascus Opera House, several universities in Syria, and throughout the Bay Area.
Maw Shein Win‘s writing has appeared in many journals and several anthologies, including MARY: A Journal of New Writing, Cimarron Review, and Poetry International. Win’s most recent poetry chapbook is Score and Bone (Nomadic Press), and her new full-length collection Invisible Gifts: Poems (Manic D Press) was a City Lights Books bestselling paperback. She is the first poet laureate of El Cerrito.
Evan Karp is the creator and executive director of Quiet Lightning, founding editor of Litseen, and half of Turk & Divis—a musical collaboration with his brother Miles. He developed the interdisciplinary performance series Under the Influence and Call and Response, as well as the interview profile series The Write Stuff.
Nick Johnson was born and raised near the brackish Chesapeake Bay but now calls the Bay Area waters home. He received his MFA from the California College of the Arts. Johnson’s work has been featured on KPFA’s Rude Awakening and has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Black Renaissance Noire, Eleven Eleven, Metazen, and other fine journals. His book, music for mussolini, was released by Nomadic Press in 2016 and was a finalist for the 2017 CLMP Firecracker Award.
Arula has been singing and composing songs since childhood. She views sound and movement as sacred expressions of a universal language—a language that connects, empowers, and unites people from all backgrounds. Music and dance have been central themes in her life; of all her gurus, they are the most revered teachers. With haunting vocals amid sensual beats, Arula creates a cohesive yet dynamic spectrum of sound. Her music is a rich interplay of her many influences; her sultry vocals and downtempo melodies take and hold shape as they blend with global music rhythms and become ancestral and grounded while dancing over trap and hip-hop beats.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Daniel Fabricant Trio / StringQuake: Melodic French Jazz & Improvisations
2018-11-01 19:30 - 22:00
Daniel Fabricant Trio joins forces with StringQuake for an evening of melodic French jazz, electrifying improvisations, and unusual meters.

FEATURING:
Daniel Fabricant Trio
Daniel Fabricant – bass
Aaron Kierbel – drums
TBD – piano
StringQuake
Amelia Romano – electric harp
Misha Khalikulov – cello
Josh Mellinger – cajón, tabla, frame drum

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Daniel Fabricant is a versatile bassist, playing both upright and electric, that can adapt to a wide range of musical settings, from intimate chamber groups to sprawling dance bands and Latin ensembles. A founding member of the award-winning Nice Guy Trio, he also regularly performs with Bay Area groups The Cosmo Alleycats, Rupa and the April Fishes, and Redwood Tango Ensemble. Fabricant has performed internationally with renowned artists Betty Buckley, Joan Rivers, Spencer Day, Ann Hampton Callaway, Petula Clark, Lucie Arnaz, Andrea Marcovicci, and Mary Wilson of the Supremes among many others. A skillful arranger for jazz, theater, and pop ensembles, Fabricant is also an accomplished music instructor, teaching guitar, bass, and ukulele to students of all ages in private and group settings.
With an emphasis on exciting and unexpected grooves, adventurous improvisations, and rich soundscapes, StringQuake has captivated audiences far and wide. The trio formed in 2012 with the mission to use their distinct instrumentation—electric harp, cello, and percussion—to transcend audience expectations. StringQuake’s stylistic influences include traditional classical chamber music, jazz, Latin, classical Indian, West African folk, and Balkan music. The group has toured Mexico, Oregon, and performs extensively in the Bay Area.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Yoga Society of San Francisco Presents: Mark Deutsch & Cornelius Boots
2018-11-02 19:30 - 22:00
Visionary musician, composer, and inventor of the bazantar—a 39-string upright bass—Mark Deutsch presents his long-awaited magnum opus, The Picasso Tunings, a box set of epic, otherworldly bazantar compositions. Maestro Deutsch will be joined by master bamboo bluesman Cornelius Boots playing the shakuhachi, the Zen Buddhist bamboo flute. Boots will start the evening off with a solo set of both traditional and original compositions, as well as his own provocative take on certain well-chosen covers before joining forces with Maestro Deutsch for some final musical alchemy.

FEATURING:
Mark Deutsch – bazantar
Cornelius Boots – shakuhachi

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Mark Deutsch is a visionary artist with a background in nonlinear mathematics, sacred systems, and cosmology. His work as a musician, inventor, and philosopher of sound have put him in rare company. In 1999, he was awarded a patent for his creation, the bazantar. Audiences are consistently amazed by what at times sounds like a group of violins or an analog synthesizer or an otherworldly Tibetan choir coming out of what looks like a decked-out upright bass.
Learn more: Facebook

Shakuhachi composer-performer Cornelius Boots is the world’s only full-time bamboo bluesman. A master of lost techniques, his breath-defying compositions weave together threads from rock, blues, heavy metal, and the traditional Zen Buddhist repertoire honkyoku. Boots’ experience as a jazz saxophonist, funk bandleader, orchestral clarinetist, and founder/composer of the renowned bass clarinet quartet Edmund Welles have made him a sought-after composer for bold woodwind soloists and chamber groups.
Learn more: Facebook | YouTube

ABOUT YOGA SOCIETY OF SAN FRANCISCO:
Founded by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati in 1972, the Yoga Society of San Francisco is an educational institution with the intention of fostering physical, mental, and spiritual growth through the study and practice of yoga, meditation, Sanskrit language, music, and other disciplines. Mark Deutsch leads the Jazz Department at YSSF where he teaches improvisation and leads workshops in music, mathematics, and mysticism.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Seth Ford-Young Quartet: Swinging Jazz Meets Cinematic Chamber Music
2018-11-04 20:00 - 22:00
Composer, bandleader, and bassist Seth Ford-Young leads his dream quartet on a mission to integrate the transparent textures of chamber music and the ebullient bounce of Django Reinhardt-style jazz. The group will perform pieces from their newest release, Time Memory Beauty Hope, as well as favorites from their first album, Seth Ford-Young.

FEATURING:
Seth Ford-Young – bass
Evan Price – violin, octave violin
Rob Reich – accordion
Jason Vanderford – guitar

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Seth Ford-Young has collaborated with a dazzling array of artists, from Tom Waits and Edward Sharpe to Barry Manilow and Beats Antique. Ford-Young, a mainstay on the Bay Area music scene for nearly two decades, now resides in Los Angeles.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:30pm doors / 8:00pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Florist: Soft-Synthesizer Folk
2018-11-08 19:30 - 22:00
Florist is a soft-synthesizer folk band and the friendship project of Emily Sprague, Rick Spataro, and Jonnie Baker. Born in the Catskill Mountains in 2012, the three began making, playing, and recording together after discovering their shared love for many things musical, as well as for each other.

FEATURING:
Emily Sprague – vocals
Jonnie Baker – guitar
Learn more: Website | Facebook

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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Mean to Me: Classic Jazz Reworked with a Funky Step
2018-11-09 19:30 - 22:00
Mean to Me is a quintet that resurrects classic jazz of the 1920s through 1940s—sometimes interlaced with the more modern stylings of Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and Ahmad Jamal—and an eclectic variety of soul and Latin jazz.

FEATURING:
Judy Butterfield – vocals
Ben Slater – saxophone, piano
Dave Shaff – trumpet, washboard
Cairo McCochran – drums
TBA – bass

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Mean to Me is comprised of four core members: Judy Butterfield, who trained as a cabaret singer but whose love is for soul music; Ben Slater, a pianist interested in exploring jazz’s roots after living in New Orleans; Cairo McCochran, a drummer with a deep knowledge of music the world over; and Dave Shaff, a trumpeter drawn to more modern and funky sounds. All four grew up in the Bay Area and have played together on and off for ten years.
Learn more: SoundCloud

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale. Ticket availability at the door is limited and contingent on online sales.
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